Special Boat Service to form British vanguard in Kabul

By Michael Smith, Defence Correspondent

12:01AM GMT 16 Nov 2001

AROUND 100 members of the Special Boat Service flew into the Bagram air base north of Kabul yesterday as the advance party of a force designed to help restore order and to ensure that humanitarian aid can get through.

The announcement of their deployment came as Mullah Omar, the Taliban's reclusive leader, vowed not to give up the fight, despite American forces stepping up the hunt for Osama bin Laden and his allies in southern Afghanistan.

The Pentagon said yesterday that it had killed several of bin Laden's senior leaders when United States air force bombers targeted houses in Kabul and Kandahar on Tuesday.

The initial task for the SBS men is to carry out a detailed reconnaissance to ensure that it is safe to send in the remainder of the force, which is expected to be the brigade HQ commanded by Brig Roger Lane, 45 Commando and 2 Btn, the Parachute Regiment.

The swiftness of the decision to move came as a surprise. Senior defence sources had been warning that no deployment would take place before the middle of next week, amid severe concerns over the exact nature of the mission.

One senior British diplomat suggested that the role of the troops would be to "shadow" the alliance's forces.

The official line has been that the force would simply "stabilise" the situation to ensure that humanitarian aid gets into the country and that United Nations officials can set up an interim government and deploy a mainly Muslim peacekeeping force.

But there are concerns that the Northern Alliance, elements of which remained the UN-recognised government throughout the five years of Taliban rule, will resist an interim administration.

The deployment is the second for 3 Commando Brigade and 45 Commando in a short time. The brigade was one of the main forces taking part in the Saif Sareea II exercise in Oman last month.

The early thinking behind the stabilisation force appears to be a Kosovo-style split of responsibilities by geographical sector with the French taking control of the situation in and around the northern city of Mazar-i-Sharif and the British in Kabul.

French special forces were carrying out reconnaissance of Mazar yesterday. The SAS has already checked out Bagram airport and the approaches to Kabul.

Other SAS troopers are already alongside their American counterparts in southern Afghanistan, stopping vehicles in a search for fleeing members of the al-Qa'eda network and gathering intelligence. They are also thought to be liaising with Pathan rebel leaders.

Despite the pressure in the United States for large numbers of troops to be deployed, Donald Rumsfeld, the US defence secretary, has made it clear that the allies will continue in southern Afghanistan with the same policy that was so successful in the north.

But unlike the north, the SAS and its American equivalent, Delta Force, have far fewer clear allies on the ground and are operating in a situation in which the outcome is as yet unclear.

Intelligence sources said that although sporadic shooting could be heard on the outskirts of Kandahar, the Taliban do not appear to have deserted their main stronghold.